“Budget 2018: Big housing plan will supply only 9,000 extra homes”

“Theresa May’s plan to solve the housing crisis will result in only 1,500 additional homes being built each year, the government’s budget watchdog has said.

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) predicts that the decision to allow councils to borrow extra money to build more social housing, which was the centrepiece of the prime minister’s party conference speech, will result in no more than 9,000 extra homes by 2024. It said that the plan would “crowd out” private sector construction as local authorities were forced to poach skilled tradesmen from house builders.

The analysis is likely to anger the prime minister because it contradicts previous predictions that the policy will help the government to meet its target of 300,000 new homes a year. “